Draper power loom in Lowell, Massachusetts, USA

A woman in Konya, Turkey works at a vertical loom

A loom is a device used to weave cloth. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics may vary, but the basic function is the same.

Etymology[link]

The word "loom" comes from the Old English "geloma" formed from ge-(perfective prefix) and loma, a root of unknown origin; this meant utensil or tool of any kind. In 1404 it was used to mean a machine to enable weaving thread into cloth.^[1] By 1838 it had gained the meaning of a machine for interlacing thread as in weaving, knitting or lacemaking.^[2]

Weaving[link]

Weaving is done by intersecting the longitudinal threads, the warp, i.e. "that which is thrown across", with the transverse threads, the weft, i.e. "that which is woven".

The major components of the loom are the warp beam, heddles, harnesses or shafts (as few as two, four is common, sixteen not unheard of), shuttle, reed and takeup roll. In the loom, yarn processing includes shedding, picking, battening and taking-up operations. These are the principal motions.

• Shedding. Shedding is the raising of part of the warp yarn to form a shed (the vertical space between the raised and unraised warp yarns), through which the filling yarn, carried by the shuttle, can be inserted. On the modern loom, simple and intricate shedding operations are performed automatically by the heddle or heald frame, also known as a harness. This is a rectangular frame to which a series of wires, called heddles or healds, are attached. The yarns are passed through the eye holes of the heddles, which hang vertically from the harnesses. The weave pattern determines which harness controls which warp yarns, and the number of harnesses used depends on the complexity of the weave. Two common methods of controlling the heddles are dobbies and a Jacquard Head.

Shuttles

• Picking. As the harnesses raise the heddles or healds, which raise the warp yarns, the shed is created. The filling yarn in inserted through the shed by a small carrier device called a shuttle. The shuttle is normally pointed at each end to allow passage through the shed. In a traditional shuttle loom, the filling yarn is wound onto a quill, which in turn is mounted in the shuttle. The filling yarn emerges through a hole in the shuttle as it moves across the loom. A single crossing of the shuttle from one side of the loom to the other is known as a pick. As the shuttle moves back and forth across the shed, it weaves an edge, or selvage, on each side of the fabric to prevent the fabric from raveling.

• Battening. As the shuttle moves across the loom laying down the fill yarn, it also passes through openings in another frame called a reed (which resembles a comb). With each picking operation, the reed presses or battens each filling yarn against the portion of the fabric that has already been formed. The point where the fabric is formed is called the fell. Conventional shuttle looms can operate at speeds of about 150 to 160 picks per minute.^[3]

There are two secondary motions, because with each weaving operation the newly constructed fabric must be wound on a cloth beam. This process is called taking up. At the same time, the warp yarns must be let off or released from the warp beams. To become fully automatic, a loom needs a tertiary motion, the filling stop motion. This will brake the loom, if the weft thread breaks.^[3] An automatic loom requires 0.125 hp to 0.5 hp to operate.

Parts of loom[link]

sley of lay, shuttle, shuttle box, picker, reed, warp beam, back beam, breast beam, cloth beam, heddles, harnesses.

Types of looms[link]

Back strap loom[link]

A back strap loom with a shed-rod.

A simple loom which has its roots in ancient civilizations comprising two sticks or bars between which the warps are stretched. One bar is attached to a fixed object and the other to the weaver usually by means of a strap around the back. On traditional looms, the two main sheds are operated by means of a shed roll over which one set of warps pass, and continuous string heddles which encase each of the warps in the other set. The weaver leans back and uses their body weight to tension the loom. To open the shed controlled by the string heddles, the weaver relaxes tension on the warps and raises the heddles. The other shed is usually opened by simply drawing the shed roll toward the weaver. Both simple and complex textiles can be woven on this loom. Width is limited to how far the weaver can reach from side to side to pass the shuttle. Warp faced textiles, often decorated with intricate pick-up patterns woven in complementary and supplementary warp techniques are woven by indigenous peoples today around the world. They produce such things as belts, ponchos, bags, hatbands and carrying cloths. Supplementary weft patterning and brocading is practiced in many regions. Balanced weaves are also possible on the backstrap loom. Today, commercially produced backstrap loom kits often include a rigid heddle.^{[citation needed]}

Warp weighted loom[link]

The warp-weighted loom is a vertical loom that may have originated in the Neolithic period. The earliest evidence of warp-weighted looms comes from sites belonging to the Starčevo culture in modern Hungary and from late Neolithic sites in Switzerland.^[4] This loom was used in Ancient Greece, and spread north and west throughout Europe thereafter.^[5] Its defining characteristic is hanging weights (loom weights) which keep bundles of the warp threads taut. Frequently, extra warp thread is wound around the weights. When a weaver has reached the bottom of the available warp, the completed section can be rolled around the top beam, and additional lengths of warp threads can be unwound from the weights to continue. This frees the weaver from vertical size constraints.

Drawloom[link]

A drawloom is a hand-loom for weaving figured cloth. In a drawloom, a "figure harness" is used to control each warp thread separately.^[6] A drawloom requires two operators, the weaver and an assistant called a "drawboy" to manage the figure harness.

Handloom[link]

Elements of a foot-treadle floor loom

Wood frame Seat for weaver Warp beam- let off Warp threads Back beam or platen Rods – used to make a shed Heddle frame - heald frame - harness Heddle- heald - the eye Shuttle with weft yarn Shed Completed fabric Breast beam Batten with reed comb Batten adjustment Lathe Treadles Cloth roll- takeup

A handloom is a simple machine used for weaving.In a wooden vertical-shaft looms, the heddles are fixed in place in the shaft. The warp threads pass alternately through a heddle, and through a space between the heddles (the shed), so that raising the shaft raises half the threads (those passing through the heddles), and lowering the shaft lowers the same threads—the threads passing through the spaces between the heddles remain in place.

Flying Shuttle[link]

Hand weavers could only weave a cloth as wide as their armspan. If cloth needed to be wider, two people would do the task (often this would be an adult with a child). John Kay (1704–1779) patented the Flying Shuttle in 1733. The weaver held a picking stick that was attached by cords to a device at both ends of the shed. With a flick of the wrist, one cord was pulled and the shuttle was propelled through the shed to the other end with considerable force, speed and efficiency. A flick in the opposite direction and the shuttle was propelled back. A single weaver had control of this motion but the flying shuttle could weave much wider fabric than an arms length at much greater speeds than had been achieved with the hand thrown shuttle. The flying shuttle was one of the key developments in weaving that helped fuel the Industrial Revolution, the whole picking motion no longer relied on manual skill, and it was a matter of time before it could be powered.

[edit] Haute-lisse and basse-lisse looms

Looms used for weaving traditional tapestry are classified as haute-lisse looms, where the warp is suspended vertically between two rolls, and the basse-lisse looms, where the warp extends horizontally between the rolls.

Ribbon weaving[link]

Traditional looms[link]

Several other types of hand looms exist including the simple frame loom, pit loom, free-standing loom and the pegged loom. Each of these can be constructed, and provide work and income in developing societies.^[7]

Power looms[link]

A 1939 loom working at the Mueller Cloth Mill museum in Euskirchen, Germany.

A Picanol rapier loom

Edmund Cartwright built and patented a power loom in 1785, and it was this that was adopted by the nascent cotton industry in England. The silk loom made by Jacques Vaucanson in 1745 operated on the same principles but wasn't developed further. The invention of the flying shuttle by John Kay was critical to the development of a commercially successful power loom.^[8] Cartwright's loom was impractical but the ideas were developed by numerous inventors in the Manchester area in England, where by 1818 there were 32 factories containing 5732 looms.^[9]

Horrocks loom was viable but it was the Roberts Loom in 1830^[10] that marked the turning point. Before this time hand looms had outnumbered power looms. Incremental changes to the three motions continued to be made. The problems of sizing, stop-motions, consistent take-up and a temple to maintain the width remained. In 1841, Kenworthy and Bullough produced the Lancashire Loom^[11] which was self-acting or semi-automatic. This enables a 15-year-old spinner to run six looms at the same time. Incrementally, the Dickinson Loom, and then the Keighley born inventor Northrop working for the Draper Corporation in Hopedale produced the fully automatic Northrop Loom which recharged the shuttle when the pirn was empty. The Draper E and X model became the leading products from 1909 until they were challenged by the different characteristics of synthetic fibres such as rayon.^[12]

From 1942 the faster and more efficient shuttleless Sulzer looms and the rapier looms were introduced.^[13] Modern industrial looms can weave at 2000 weft insertions per minute.^[14] Today, advances in technology have produced a variety of looms designed to maximize production for specific types of material. The most common of these are air-jet looms (e.g. “JAT710”) and water-jet looms.^{[citation needed]}

Jacquard looms[link]

The Jacquard loom is a mechanical loom, invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1801, that simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles with complex patterns such as brocade, damask and matelasse.^[15][16] The loom is controlled by punched cards with punched holes, each row of which corresponds to one row of the design. Multiple rows of holes are punched on each card and the many cards that compose the design of the textile are strung together in order. It is based on earlier inventions by the Frenchmen Basile Bouchon (1725), Jean Baptiste Falcon (1728) and Jacques Vaucanson (1740)^[17] To call it a loom is a misnomer, a Jacquard head could be attached to a power loom or a hand loom, the head controlled which warp thread was raised during shedding. Multiple shuttles could be used to control the colour of the weft during picking.

• 

  Hand operated Jacquard looms in the Textile Department of the Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz, Poland.

• 

  Battening on a jacquard loom in Lodz.

• 

  Following the pattern, holes are punched in the appropriate places on a jacquard card.

Dobby looms[link]

A Dobby Loom is a type of floor loom that controls the whole warp threads using a dobby head. Dobby is a corruption of "draw boy" which refers to the weaver's helpers who used to control the warp thread by pulling on draw threads. A dobby loom is an alternative to a treadle loom, where multiple heddles (shafts) were controlled by foot treadles- one for each heddle. The Jacquard loom, which was invented earlier applies the same idea in a different way.

Gallery[link]

• 

  An early nineteenth century Japanese loom with several heddles, which the weaver controls with her foot

• 

  Woman weaving in Nepal ]]

• 

  A Jakaltek Maya brocades a hair sash on a back strap loom.]]

• 

  Hand loom at Hjerl Hede, Denmark, showing grayish warp threads (back) and cloth woven with red filling yarn (front)

• 

  A foot-treadle operated Hattersley & Sons, Domestic Loom, built under license in 1893, in Keighley, Yorkshire.

• Arjun Swansi at his loom.jpg

  Arjun Swansi at his loom

Patents[link]

• U.S. Patent 0,000,169 – Loom

See also[link]

• Fashion and Textile Museum
• Shuttle (weaving)
• Textile manufacturing
• Timeline of clothing and textiles technology
• Weaving (mythology)

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Barber, E. J. W. (1991). Prehistoric Textiles. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-00224-X. 
• Burnham, Dorothy K. (1980). Warp and Weft: A Textile Terminology. Royal Ontario Museum. ISBN 0-88854-256-9. 
• Collier, Ann M (1970). A Handbook of Textiles. Pergamon Press. pp. 258. ISBN 0-08-018057-4, 0 08 018056 6. 
• Crowfoot, Grace (1936/1937). "Of the Warp-Weighted Loom". The Annual of the British School at Athens 37: 36–47. 
• Marsden, Richard (1895). Cotton Weaving: Its Development, Principles, and Practice. George Bell & Sons. pp. 584. http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/books.html. Retrieved Feb 2009. 
• Mass, William (1990). "The Decline of a Technology Leader:Capabilty, strategy and shuttleless Weaving". Business and Economic History. ISSN 089-6825. http://www.h-net.org/~business/bhcweb/publications/BEHprint/v019/p0234-p0244.pdf. 
• Ventura, Carol (2003). Maya Hair Sashes Backstrap Woven in Jacaltenango, Guatemala, Cintas Mayas tejidas con el telar de cintura en Jacaltenango, Guatemala. Carol Ventura. ISBN 0-9721253-1-0. 

External links[link]

Look up loom in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Looms

• Handloom construction: Practical guide to constructing viable handlooms, Joan Koster,1978
• Loom demonstration video
• "Caring for your loom" article
• "The Art and History of Weaving"
• The Medieval Technology Pages: "The Horizontal Loom"

v t e Weaving Weaves Basketweave Charvet Coverlet Double weave Even-weave Lampas Oxford Pile weave Piqué Plain weave Satin weave Twill Gabardine Components Textiles Warp Weft Yarn Tools and techniques Chilkat weaving Fingerweaving Flying shuttle Heddle Ikat Inkle weaving Jacquard weaving Kasuri Loom Navajo weaving Salish weaving Shed Shuttle Tablet weaving Tāniko Tapestry Temple Types of looms Dobby loom Jacquard loom Hattersley loom Lancashire loom Northrop loom Power loom Roberts Loom Warp weighted loom Weavers Acesas Anni Albers Ada Dietz Micheline Beauchemin Thomas Ferguson & Co Ltd Dorothy Liebes Pamphile John Rylands Brigitta Scherzenfeldt Clara Sherman Gunta Stölzl Judocus de Vos

Luke Scott
Tampa Bay Rays – No. 30
Designated hitter / First Baseman / Outfielder
Born: (1978-06-25) June 25, 1978 (age 34) De Leon Springs, Florida
Bats: Left	Throws: Right
MLB debut
April 5, 2005 for the Houston Astros
Career statistics (through May 24, 2012)
Batting average	.263
Home runs	120
Runs batted in	372
Teams
Houston Astros (2005-2007) Baltimore Orioles (2008-2011) Tampa Bay Rays (2012-present)

Luke Brandon Scott (born June 25, 1978) is an American professional baseball first baseman, outfielder and designated hitter for the Tampa Bay Rays of Major League Baseball.

College[link]

Scott attended Oklahoma State University, where he earned All-Big 12 Conference honors on the Oklahoma State Cowboys baseball team. In the summer of 2000, he played for the Falmouth Commodores of the Cape Cod Baseball League. He also played baseball at Indian River Community College. Luke spent a winter playing for a Venezuelan League where he earned the nickname "el monstruo de cuadrangular" which translates to "The Home Run Monster". He spent his first professional season in 2001 at home recovering from Tommy John surgery on his elbow joint.^[1]

Professional baseball career[link]

Cleveland Indians[link]

Scott, drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 9th round of the 2001 Major League Baseball Draft and made his professional debut for the Columbus Red Stixx of the South Atlantic League in 2002. He played for the Indians organization through 2003, making stops at Kinston and Akron.

Houston Astros[link]

He was traded by the Indians to the Houston Astros for Jeriome Robertson before the 2004 season. He made his Major League debut on April 5, 2005 against the St. Louis Cardinals, and was hitless in three at-bats in that game. His first hit was a triple to centerfield off Ramón Ortiz of the Cincinnati Reds on April 8, 2005.^[2] He appeared in 34 games that season, hitting .188.

Scott became the first Astros' rookie to hit for the cycle, accomplishing a "reverse natural cycle" (home run, triple, double, and single, in that order) on July 28, 2006.^[3] That feat also marked Scott's first career home run, off Enrique González. After the completion of the 2007 season Scott headed to Venezuela to play another season in the Winter League, where he earned Winter League all-star honors.

Baltimore Orioles[link]

Scott with the Baltimore Orioles in 2011.

Scott was traded to the Orioles with Matt Albers, Troy Patton, Dennis Sarfate and Mike Costanzo for Miguel Tejada during the 2007-2008 off-season.^[4]

On July 7, 2009, Scott had a career high seven RBIs against the Seattle Mariners, going 3-4 with a single, triple, and home run. After Aubrey Huff was dealt to the Detroit Tigers in August 2009, the Orioles starting using Scott as an occasional 1st baseman. Scott was named Most Valuable Oriole for the 2010 season.^[5]

Scott hit .220 in 2011 and struck out 54 times in 209 at-bats.^[6] The Orioles declined to offer him a contract for 2012, making him a free agent.^[7]

Tampa Bay Rays[link]

On January 12, 2012, Scott signed a one year deal with a player option for 2013 with the Tampa Bay Rays.^[8]

Personal life[link]

Scott enjoys hunting and is a firearms enthusiast. He is a supporter of greater personal responsibility and smaller government.^[9]

In 2010, during the dispute regarding President Obama's birth certificate, Scott said that Obama was not born in the United States. Scott added: "I was born here. If someone accuses me of not being born here, I can go -- within 10 minutes -- to my filing cabinet and I can pick up my real birth certificate and I can go, 'See? Look! Here it is. Here it is.' The man has dodged everything. He dodges questions, he doesn't answer anything. And why? Because he's hiding something."^[9][10]

References[link]

External links[link]

Baseball portal

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• MLB updates
• The Daily Texan Online

Sir Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott in March 2012.
Born	(1937-11-30) 30 November 1937 (age 74) South Shields, England, United Kingdom
Occupation	Film director, film producer
Years active	1965–present
Notable work(s)	Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, 1492: Conquest of Paradise, Gladiator, Hannibal, Black Hawk Down, American Gangster
Spouse	Felicity Heywood, (m. 1964–1975, divorced) Sandy Watson (m. 1979–1989, divorced)
Children	With Felicity Heywood Jake (born 1965) Luke (born 1968) With Sandy Watson Jordan (born 1978)

Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November, 1937) is an English film director and producer. His most famous films include The Duellists (1977), Alien (1979), Blade Runner (1982), Legend (1985), Black Rain (1989), Thelma & Louise (1991), Gladiator (2000), Hannibal (2001), Black Hawk Down (2001), Kingdom of Heaven (2005) American Gangster (2007), Body of Lies (2008), and Prometheus (2012).

Scott has been nominated for three Academy Awards for Directing, as well as Golden Globe and Emmy Awards. He was knighted in the 2003 New Year Honours.^[1] In 2011, Scott received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.^[2] He is the older brother of film director Tony Scott.^[3]

Early Life[link]

Scott was born in South Shields,^[4] England, the son of Elizabeth and Colonel Francis Percy Scott.^[5] He was raised in an Army family, meaning that for most of his early life, his father — an officer in the Royal Engineers — was absent. Ridley's older brother, Frank, joined the Merchant Navy when he was still young and the pair had little contact. During this time the family moved around, living in (among other areas) Cumbria, Wales and Germany. He has a younger brother, Tony, also a film director. After the Second World War, the Scott family moved back to their native north-east England, eventually settling in Teesside (whose industrial landscape would later inspire similar scenes in Blade Runner). He enjoyed watching films, and his favourites include Lawrence of Arabia, Citizen Kane and Seven Samurai.^[6] Scott studied in Teesside from 1954 to 1958, at Grangefield Grammar School and later in West Hartlepool College of Art, graduating with a Diploma in Design.

He went on to study at the Royal College of Art, contributing to the college magazine, ARK, and helping to establish its film department. For his final show, he made a black and white short film, Boy and Bicycle, starring his younger brother, Tony Scott, and his father. The film's main visual elements would become features of Scott's later work; it was issued on the 'Extras' section of The Duellists DVD. After graduation in 1963, he secured a job as a trainee set designer with the BBC, leading to work on the popular television police series Z-Cars and the science fiction series Out of the Unknown.

He was assigned to design the second Doctor Who serial, The Daleks, which would have entailed realising the famous alien creatures. However, shortly before Scott was due to start work, a schedule conflict meant that he was replaced on the serial by Raymond Cusick.^[7]

In 1968, Ridley and Tony Scott founded Ridley Scott Associates (RSA), a film and commercial production company.^[8] Five members of the Scott family are directors, all working for RSA.^[9] Brother Tony has been a successful film director for more than two decades; sons, Jake and Luke are both acclaimed commercials directors as is his daughter, Jordan Scott. Jake and Jordan both work from Los Angeles and Luke is based in London.

In 1995, Shepperton Studios was purchased by a consortium headed by Ridley and Tony Scott, which extensively renovated the studios while also expanding and improving its grounds.^[10]

Career[link]

Beginnings[link]

Working with Alan Parker, Hugh Hudson, Hugh Johnson at RSA during the 1970s, Scott made television commercials in the UK including most notably the 1974 Hovis advert, "Bike Round" (New World Symphony), which was filmed in Shaftesbury, Dorset.

[edit] The Duellists

The Duellists of 1977 was Ridley Scott's first feature film. It was produced in Europe and won a Best Debut Film medal at the Cannes Film Festival but made limited commercial impact in the US. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, it featured two French Hussar officers, D'Hubert and Feraud (played by Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel). Their quarrel over an initially minor incident turns into a bitter, long-drawn out feud over the following fifteen years, interwoven with the larger conflict that provides its backdrop. The film is lauded for its historically authentic portrayal of Napoleonic uniforms and military conduct, as well as its accurate early-19th-century fencing techniques recreated by fight choreographer William Hobbs. It is also lauded for the stunning cinematography of the Dordogne.

[edit] Alien

Scott's box office disappointment with The Duellists was compounded by the success received by Alan Parker with American-backed films — Scott admitted he was "ill for a week" with envy. Scott had originally planned to next adapt a version of Tristan and Iseult, but after seeing Star Wars, he became convinced of the potential of large scale, effects-driven films. He therefore accepted the job of directing Alien, the ground-breaking 1979 horror/science-fiction film that would give him international recognition.

While Scott would not direct the three Alien sequels, the female action hero Ellen Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver), introduced in the first film, would become a cinematic icon. Scott was involved in the 2003 restoration and re-release of the film including media interviews for its promotion. At this time Scott indicated that he had been in discussions to make the fifth and final film in the Alien franchise. However, in a 2006 interview, the director remarked that he had been unhappy about Alien: The Director's Cut, feeling that the original was "pretty flawless" and that the additions were merely a marketing tool.^[11]

[edit] Blade Runner

After a year working on the film adaptation of Dune, and following the sudden death of his brother Frank, Scott signed to direct the film version of Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Starring Harrison Ford and featuring an acclaimed soundtrack by Vangelis, Blade Runner was a disappointment in theatres in 1982 and was pulled shortly thereafter. Scott's notes were used by Warner Brothers to create a rushed director's cut in 1991 which removed the voiceovers and modified the ending. Scott personally supervised a digital restoration of Blade Runner and approved the Final Cut. This version was released in Los Angeles, New York, and Toronto cinemas on 5 October 2007, and as an elaborate DVD release on 18 December 2007.^[12] Today, Blade Runner is often ranked by critics as one of the most important and influential science fiction films of the 20th century^[13] and is usually discussed along with William Gibson's novel Neuromancer as initiating the cyberpunk genre. Scott regards Blade Runner as his "most complete and personal film".^[14]

"1984" Apple Macintosh commercial[link]

In 1984 Scott directed the television commercial 1984, written by Steve Hayden and Lee Clow, produced by Chiat\Day, and starring Anya Major as the unnamed heroine and David Graham as "Big Brother".^[15][16] It was released for a single airing in the United States on 22 January 1984 during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII.^[17] It introduced the Macintosh for the first time and is now considered a "watershed event"^[18] and a "masterpiece".^[19]

1984 used the unnamed heroine to represent the coming of the Macintosh (indicated by her white tank top with a Picasso-style picture of Apple’s Macintosh computer on it) as a means of saving humanity from "conformity" (Big Brother).^[20]

These images were an allusion to George Orwell's noted novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, which described a dystopian future ruled by a supposedly fictional "Big Brother".

[edit] Legend

In 1985 Scott directed Legend, a fantasy film produced by Arnon Milchan. Having not tackled the fairy tale genre, Scott decided to create a "once upon a time" film set in a world of fairies, princesses, and goblins. Scott cast Tom Cruise as the film's hero, Jack, Mia Sara as Princess Lily, and Tim Curry as the Satan-horned Lord of Darkness. A series of problems with both principal photography, including the destruction of the forest set by fire, and post-production (including heavy editing and substitution of Jerry Goldsmith's original score with a score by Tangerine Dream) hampered the film's release. Legend received scathing reviews.

1987–92[link]

Scott made Someone to Watch Over Me, a romantic police drama starring Tom Berenger, Lorraine Bracco and Mimi Rogers in 1987, and Black Rain, a 1989 cop drama starring Michael Douglas and Andy García, shot partially in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan. Both achieved mild success at the box office.

Thelma & Louise (1991) starring Geena Davis as Thelma, and Susan Sarandon as Louise, was successful, and revived Scott's reputation. However, his next project—an independent movie, 1492: Conquest of Paradise—was less successful. It is a visually striking film telling the story of Christopher Columbus. However, it was a box office failure, and Scott did not release another film for four years.

Recent career[link]

In 1995, with his brother Tony, Scott formed the film and television production company, Scott Free Productions in Los Angeles. All his subsequent feature films, starting with White Squall and G.I. Jane, starring Demi Moore and Viggo Mortensen, were produced under the Scott Free banner. Also in 1995 the two brothers purchased controlling interest in Shepperton Studios, which later merged with Pinewood Studios. Scott and his brother have produced the CBS series Numb3rs (2005–2010), a crime drama about a genius mathematician who helps the FBI solve crimes, and The Good Wife (2009–), a legal drama concerning an attorney continuing her law practice while coping with her husband, a former state attorney trying to rebuild his political career after a major scandal.

2000–2005[link]

The huge success of Scott's film Gladiator (2000) has been credited with reviving the nearly defunct "sword and sandal" historical genre. Scott then turned to Hannibal (2001), the sequel to Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs. In 2002, Scott released the war film, Black Hawk Down, which further established his position as a critically and financially successful film maker. The film won two Oscars.

In 2003 Scott directed Matchstick Men, adapted from the novel by Eric Garcia and starring Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell and Alison Lohman. It received mostly positive reviews and performed moderately at the box office. In 2005 he made the modestly successful Kingdom of Heaven, a movie about the Crusades which consciously sought to connect history to current events. The Moroccan government sent the Moroccan cavalry as extras in the epic battle scenes.^[21]

Unhappy with the theatrical version of the film (which he blamed on paying too much attention to the opinions of preview audiences), Scott supervised a director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven, which was released on DVD in 2006.^[22] In an interview to promote the latter, when asked if he was against previewing in general, Scott stated: "It depends who's in the driving seat. If you've got a lunatic doing my job, then you need to preview. But a good director should be experienced enough to judge what he thinks is the correct version to go out into the cinema."^[23]

2006–present[link]

Scott teamed up again with Gladiator star Russell Crowe, directing the movie A Good Year, based on the best-selling book. The film was released on 10 November 2006, with a score by Marc Streitenfeld. Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp and Subsidiary studio 20th Century Fox (who backed the film) dismissed A Good Year as "a flop" at a shareholders' meeting only a few days after the film's release.^[24]

Scott's next directorial work was on American Gangster, the story of real-life drug kingpin Frank Lucas. He was the third director to attempt the project after Antoine Fuqua and Terry George. Denzel Washington and Benicio del Toro had been cast in the initial Steven Zaillian-scripted project under the working title Tru Blu, both actors having been paid salaries of $20 m and $15 m respectively without doing any production on the film. Following George's departure, Scott took over the project in early 2006. He had Zaillian rewrite the script to focus on the dynamic between Frank Lucas and Richie Roberts. Washington signed back on to the project as Lucas, and Crowe signed on to play Roberts. The film finally premiered in November 2007 to positive reviews and good box office. In late 2008 Scott released the espionage thriller Body of Lies starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Crowe once again which opened to luke-warm ticket-sales and mixed reviews.

Scott directed an adaptation of Robin Hood titled Robin Hood, which starred Russell Crowe as Robin Hood and Cate Blanchett as Maid Marian, and which was released on 13 May 2010 in Australia and 14 May 2010 in America. The film also starred Max von Sydow and Mark Strong.

Scott and his brother Tony produced the film adaptation of the 1980s TV cult classic The A-Team, which was directed by Joe Carnahan and released on 11 June 2010.

On 31 July 2009, news surfaced of a two part prequel to Alien, developed by 20th Century Fox.^[25] with Scott attached to direct.^[26]. The project, ultimately reduced to a single film called Prometheus, which Scott describes as sharing "strands of Alien's DNA" while not being a direct prequel, is scheduled for release in June 2012.

On 6 July 2010, YouTube announced the launch of Life In A Day, an experimental documentary that was to be executive produced by Scott. Released at the Sundance Film Festival on 27 January 2011, it incorporates footage shot on 24 July 2010 that was submitted by YouTube users from around the world.^[27]

Planned projects[link]

In April 2008, Scott announced his new project, The Kind One, a period drama set for release in 2012. The film will star recent Academy Award nominee Casey Affleck.^[28] It is based on the novel of the same name by screenwriter Tom Epperson.

On 12 October 2008, Scott confirmed that after a 25 year wait for the rights to become available, he is making a return to science fiction with a film adaptation of the book The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. He was looking for a script writer.^[29] In March 2009, Scott confirmed that the film would be in 3D citing James Cameron's Avatar as an inspiration for doing so. "I'm filming a book by Joe Haldeman called Forever War. I've got a good writer doing it. I've seen some of James Cameron's work, and I've got to go 3D. It's going to be phenomenal."^[30][31]

Another science fiction project to which Scott has been attached is an adaptation of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, with Leonardo DiCaprio also attached.^[32]

In August 2011, information leaked about production of a sequel to Blade Runner by Alcon Entertainment, with Alcon partners Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove.^[33] Scott announced on 15 October 2009 that he will direct a film adaptation of the Red Riding trilogy.^[34]

As of 1 February 2012, Ridley Scott discussed a project based on a screenplay called The Counsellor by Cormac McCarthy with the producers of The Road, Nick Wechsler and Steve and Paula Mae Schwartz. ^[35]

Personal life[link]

Ridley Scott was married to Felicity Heywood from 1964 to 1975. The couple had two sons, Jake and Luke, both of whom work as directors on Scott's production company Ridley Scott Associates. Scott later married advertising executive Sandy Watson in 1979, with whom he had a daughter, Jordan Scott, and divorced in 1989.^[36][37]

His current partner is the actress Giannina Facio, whom he has cast in all his movies since White Squall except American Gangster.^{[citation needed]} He divides his time between homes in London, France, and Los Angeles.

Approach and style[link]

Scott was not initially considered an actors' director^{[citation needed]}, but has become more receptive to ideas from his cast as his career has developed. Examples include Susan Sarandon's suggestions that the character of Louise pack shoes in plastic bags in one scene of Thelma & Louise, and another where her character exchanges jewelry for a hat and other items— and Tim Robbins' collaboration with Scott and Susan Sarandon to rework the final scene with a more upbeat ending. Russell Crowe commented, "I like being on Ridley's set because actors can perform [...] and the focus is on the performers."^[38] Paul M. Sammon, in his book Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner, commented in an interview with Brmovie.com that Scott's relationship with his actors has improved considerably over the years.^[39] More recently during the filming of Scott's 2012 film, Prometheus, Charlize Theron praised the director's willingness to listen to suggestions from the cast for improvements in the way their characters are portrayed on script. Theron worked alongside the writers and Scott to give more depth to her character during filming.^[40]

On the other hand, he can be a demanding and difficult director to work for. He was nicknamed "Guvnor" in the Blade Runner production. Several crew members wore protest t-shirts with slogans such as "Yes Guvnor, my ass" and "Will Rogers never met Ridley Scott" in reference to Will Rogers' most famous quotation, "I never met a man I didn't like".^{[41][citation needed]} This was mainly in response to the way that Scott directed his first American crew, which some considered too harsh.

His striking visual style, incorporating a detailed approach to production design and innovative, atmospheric lighting, has been influential on a subsequent generation of filmmakers — many of whom have imitated his style. Scott commonly uses slow pacing until the action sequences. Examples include Alien and Blade Runner; the LA Times critic Sheila Benson, for example, would call the latter "Blade Crawler" "because it's so damn slow". Another technique he employs is use of sound or music to build tension, as heard in Alien, with hissing steam, beeping computers and the noise of the machinery in the space ship.

Scott has developed a method for filming intricate shots as swiftly as possible:

"I like working, always, with a minimum of three cameras. [...] So those 50 set-ups [a day] might only be 25 set-ups except I'm covering in the set-up. So you're finished. I mean, if you take a little bit more time to prep on three cameras, or if it's a big stunt, eleven cameras, and — whilst it may take 45 minutes to set up — then when you're ready you say 'Action!', and you do three takes, two takes and is everybody happy? You say, 'Yeah, that's it.' So you move on."^[38]

Although Scott is often known for his painterly directorial style, other techniques and elements include:

• Strong female characters.^[42][43]
• Some of his movies feature strong conflicts between father and son that usually end with the latter killing the former (Blade Runner, Gladiator) or witnessing the event (Kingdom of Heaven, Robin Hood). The Lord of Darkness in Legend also mentions his "father" on a few occasions. As part of the conflict between father and son there are some repetitive scenes: in Gladiator, the son hugs the father seemingly as an expression of love but this embrace turns into the suffocation and death of the father. There is a similar sequence in Blade Runner.
• Scott utilises cityscapes as an emphasis to his storytelling (i.e., a futuristic Los Angeles in Blade Runner, Tokyo in Black Rain, Jerusalem in Kingdom of Heaven).
• In Gladiator, Blade Runner and Kingdom of Heaven, a son gets to know his father when he is grown up. Other common elements are that the mother is not seen, and that the son or father is seen performing his last actions. For example, Roy Batty is dying when he saves Deckard, Maximus dies after killing Commodus and Godfrey of Ibelin kills some enemies after he has been mortally wounded by an arrow. In addition, the hero is saved from death before attaining his greatest deeds: Deckard is saved by Rachel, Maximus is saved by a slave and Balian is saved by a Muslim enemy. Similar situations can be seen in Tony Scott's Man on Fire.
• Military and officer classes as characters reflecting his father's career, such as in G.I. Jane and Black Hawk Down and Kingdom of Heaven.
• Storyboarding his films extensively. These illustrations, when made by himself, have been referred to as "Ridleygrams" in DVD releases.
• Scott was once known for requesting a great many takes. This was evident on Blade Runner: the crew nicknamed the movie "Blood Runner" because of this.
• He often makes use of classical music (the Hovis advertisements, Someone to Watch Over Me).
• Extensive use of smoke and other atmospheres (in Alien, Blade Runner and Black Rain), plus fans and fan-like objects (Blade Runner, Black Rain and the large Boeing jet engines in the 1984 TV advertisement). Fans are also used in Hannibal, for symbolic purposes.
• Consistency in his choice of composers, using Jerry Goldsmith (Alien and Legend), Vangelis (Blade Runner and 1492: Conquest of Paradise), Hans Zimmer (Black Rain, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, Hannibal, Black Hawk Down and Matchstick Men) or Marc Streitenfeld (A Good Year, American Gangster, Body of Lies, Robin Hood and Prometheus). Scott has also twice used songs by Sting during the film credits ("Valparaiso" for White Squall and "Someone to Watch Over Me" for the movie of the same title).

DVD format and director's cut[link]

Scott is known for his enthusiasm for the DVD format, providing audio commentaries and interviews for all his films where possible. In the July 2006 issue of Total Film magazine, he stated: "After all the work we go through, to have it run in the cinema and then disappear forever is a great pity. To give the film added life is really cool for both those who missed it and those who really loved it."^[23]

Running alongside his enthusiasm for DVD, Scott is sometimes considered the "father" of the director's cut, though the impetus to produce such versions has sometimes begun with other parties. The positive reaction to the Blade Runner Director's Cut encouraged Scott to re-cut several movies that were a disappointment at the time of their release (including Legend and Kingdom of Heaven). Today the practice of alternative cuts is more commonplace, though often as a way to make a film stand out in the DVD marketplace by adding new material.

Filmography[link]

Commercials[link]

• Bike Round for Hovis (1973)
• Chanel... Share the fantasy. for Chanel (1979)
• 1984 for Apple Computer (1984)
• Deficit Trials for W.R. Grace (1986)
• The Choice of a New Generation for Pepsi (1986) (Starred Don Johnson and Glenn Frey)
• Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo Super Bowl commercial (1992)

TV shows[link]

• Numb3rs (Producer, 2005–2010)
• The Good Wife (Executive producer, 2009–present)
• The Pillars of the Earth (Executive producer, 2010)
• Prophets of Science Fiction (Executive producer, 2011)
• Labyrinth (Executive producer, 2012)

Awards & Nominations[link]

Scott has been nominated for three Academy Awards for Directing: for Thelma & Louise, Gladiator and Black Hawk Down, as well as a Golden Globe, BAFTA and Emmy Award. He has won 3 British Academy Awards for the film Blade Runner.^[44] He was knighted in the 2003 New Year Honours. In 2011, He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.^{[45] [1]}

Box office performance[link]

References[link]